MotoGP™ remain in Jerez for one day test

After a hard weekend of racing, riders in the MotoGP™ World Champion will be back out on Monday for a day of testing.

Monday after the Gran Premio Red Bull de España presents many MotoGP™ teams with their first chance to test since the pre-season test in Qatar. While race weekends offer four Free Practice sessions and 20 minutes of Warm Up, all of these sessions have a sense of urgency and teams rarely have time to experiment with radical changes.

Even a one-day test offers a chance to do just this. With four races worth of data, all the riders of the premier class and their teams have a decent amount of work to get through. Engines remain frozen for the like of Yamaha, Honda and Ducati but Aprilia have been working hard behind the scenes and will debut several upgrades. The weekend saw Aprilia experiment with winglets, aerodynamics an area they'll continue to refine.

Team Suzuki Ecstar are one of the few teams to have tested since Qatar, their concessions granting them unlimited testing. Still they have many things to try and will once again be testing the winglets Aleix Espargaro ran for a single session during the weekend. Maverick Viñales will be looking to improve rear grip, having struggled to find any during the race. Their private test in Austin saw them compare the 2015 and 2016 chassis.

Ducati riders will also be looking to improve their feeling on Monday as all of them struggled more than at any of the previous rounds. Jerez is often a good indicator of overall performance during the European leg of the championship and Ducati aren’t content with their best bike ending seventh.

The test will offer Honda a chance to explore why Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) experienced such intense tyre wear during the race. After a difficult start to the year, the rest of the Honda riders will spend the test looking for a more comfortable feeling on their RC213Vs to try and match the results of Marquez.

Finishing first and second in the race may leave Yamaha feeling confident of their performance but they know better than anyone that you can’t rest on your laurels in MotoGP™. The opening rounds have seen both Movistar Yamaha MotoGP machines fitted with winglets and the rear fuel tank in various configurations and no doubt further experimentation will be done on Monday. Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) has been waiting for this test since losing his way with the new rear tyres early in the season.

Be sure to check back in on motogp.com throughout the day for regular updates and lap times.